The Siege, Part 2 (120)

[QuiGonJohn]

An almost perfect end to the season, but Everett really grated.
I felt that he was over played and over written. There is no way that an experienced field officer would ignore and cut out the person who is, basically, the equivallent of a governor, even if they are civillian and female, especially since she was appointed by sanction of his ultimate commander in chief, the president of the USA. He would not have been given orders to do so by O'Niell and would have been overstepping his authority.

My thoughts exactly. I rewatched Seige 1 & 2, before I saw 3. I couldn't believe Jack would have picked Col. Everett to run the operation to Atlantis. He was such a jerk and treated the experts at Atlantis the same way other Pentagon baffoons treated SG-1 during the years Jack was on the team.

[macktheknife]

Did I see Beckett wear pistol in the episode? Or is it my imagination?

Yeah.

[White Knight]

Did I see Beckett wear pistol in the episode? Or is it my imagination?

In The Siege, pt 2, they were giving sidearms and other weapons to everyone, including the scientists and doctors, so...he probably did.

Or else they've stuffed up the continuity, in which case they'll have a massive gaggle of sci-fi obsessive...people (no one on Gateworld, of course) telling them all about it at every convention from now 'till Season 4.

[vng_w3]

hello
can some1 tell me what`s the soundtrack of this episode name ??? it`s a piano song ... it`s exactly when the movie ends

[Panther]

Last night, the abysmal first season of Atlantis finally ended. Lucky for us Aussies it ended with the two episodes concatenated as one two-hour finale. I must say, watching the last half was such a stupid, boring waste of time that I've actually grown stupider from doing so. The episode stunk of plot devices, ignorance, stupidity and cheap visuals.

The first immediate sign of the **** they were about to sling was when the "Marines" came in wearing berets! What the hell? It is common knowledge they will not touch one with a ten foot pole. They have their fatigue and boonie caps and they work just fine for them.

Secondly, they come in carrying P90s! Do the TPTB presume to tell me if a Marine combat unit is going to in action they carry one of those? Please! I'm not a stupid docile ****.

Predictably, the first thing Everett did was piss off the personell in the city. Gee, good thinking there mate. This place is your responsibility, and is under a clear and present danger and first the thing you do is sow discord in your command. Wow, brilliant strategy. I'll have to write that one down.

Then, he completely sidelines the science personell and goes all "this is a military decision" crap you hear. Now let me get this straight, he booted out of the way probably the brains of the whole operation and being the Stargate universe they are able to make bombs out toothpicks and chewing gums eliminated any good options on the table. They were after all able to correct the Genii bombs and rig up a remote control for the PJ. Wow brilliant. Hannibal would feel like a mere mouse around him. Personally, I would have left a more desirable retreat option open by having them work on how to get Atlantis flying. Flee when your are not strong.

Then of course we come to the whole plan for defending Atlantis. It was sorely disappointing, merely an eggshell defense. Strong on the surface but once broken the whole system goes down. The main strategy was to put up a strong position and defend the city from the city. No forward defense, no depth to fall back on.

The use of the Naquada nukes was just so piss poor as to be disgusting. He had probably the best option in his command and just wasted them as mines? I mean come on. That's the worst of both worlds. Not a strong defense not a strong offence. My strategy would have been to rig up PJs as bombers and use their stealth ability to chuck the nukes out the back of the cargo bay. This would have involved a change of fuzes from proximity to timed but since US manufactured weapons have fail-safes and modular fusing systems it would not be a problem. In fact with the PJ's excellent ability to hide the mission would have a high success probability.

We come to when the "sensors" were overloaded. The odditity of Altantis using optic circuts which are not affected by EMP, yet somehow they were knocked out is puzzling. We have then the move afterwards. Nothing, no deployment of a recon screen, no attempt to open new channels of tactical intelligence. For ****s sake you have stealth aircraft!!! Know your enemy stupid!!! How the hell are you supposed to adapt to the situation without knowing it!!!

Ground to air defense again was piss poor and stupid. Firstly the AAA around the city seemed to be sited poorly. One the best solutions to sighting guns is to put them on towers. The Germans did this in WW2 and pilots running CAS missions had to have their eyes open and ears listening not to get their plane turned into paper mache. Secondly, the guns were manned. Excuse me? Did they miss the development of fire control radars and remote command? **** even the Greeks and Italians have their own AA guns that use radar and a command wagon to control batteries. When that rail gun stopped firing because the Marines were transported out by Darts, I just couldn't stop shaking my head. They lost a position because it was manned. Supreme stupidity, considering a whole battery can be remotely operated and better managed. Also the fire control radar can always comput the optimum firing solution increasing the chance of a hit. Then when we get that stupid cheesy shot of Ford firing the gun, what do we see. He's using dead reckoning to fire!!! WHAT? All that flashy electronic gear and he can't see a display on his screen? Infuriating!

Then we have the useless partners. Infantry machineguns (the M249 Paras) are useless against flying aircraft not to mention they are limited by range and ammunition. What the hell is a SS109D fired out of a 13.74in barrel? Piss all, since it's having trouble killing humans too! And what's the M2HB supposed to, aside from look cool? The thing fires at 500rpm while we have guns like the Vulcan firing at least 2000rpm and still having trouble with hits. The really stupid ones were the XM177E2s being fired at the darts! It has an even shorter barrel and has cycling problems, from low pressure in the gas-tube!

The mere thought of using AA guns as primary air defense systems is also stupid. What the missile age doesn't exist? No Patriots, Stingers or Hawks? Oh my god, the command should be court martialed for putting the men it is responsible for in danger. SAMs have a long range and more importantly are guided and thus have a far better chance of putting up a defense. The lowliest stinger still has all-aspect target engagement and can pull 8G turns. Guns are for shooting down things that get through the SAM blanket. It obvious why TPTB used didn't use them. They wanted to get the feeling of an air-raid, and see really cool tracers flying. Well kiss my ass your morons, it did dick all for me!

Which brings me to the next topic. What the hell was that shot of Weir and Everett watching the battle like it was a bloody fireworks show? Excuse me, but a freaking air raid would make me piss my pants and to take cover. This also shows another issue. Why didn't Everett move his CP into a deeper position. It seems that LANTEXP managed to rig up their little Dell tablets just fine so why not somewherelse on the base? The command centre is on top of a tower, which basically says hit me, I'm an elevated position. *Cough*Saving Private Ryan*Cough*

Then we come to the ground defense. Previously the Wraith have demostrated the ability to teleport to the ground and start stirring **** down there. Not a single patrol and strong point defense was mounted in a critical area, until the Wraith started teleporting in. The power generators, life-line of the city, were left open to sabotage. No anticipation of this occured despite behaviour to the former. I mean it's logical. They want to capture Atlantis not bomb it into the ground, so it would follow they would need an infantry force. That is the force that seizes and holds objectives. When the patrols did start there was some semblance of co-ordination. They appeared at least to fan out, search and initated contact and bring in reinforcements. However the battles again looked stupid. The P90 was designed from the get go to enable the user to shoot it with very little training. Basically you point the little dot on the target and pull the trigger and the rounds would connect. With 0.5 ft/lb. of free recoil energy you won't miss. But we see spraying and misses even when in good shooting form. What the hell?

And what was the Colonel doing leading one of the patrols and without a freaking helmet too! Is is super-commander? He needs to stay in his CP and command and not do the work of NCOs and junior officers. He's got enough on his plate (and I didn't see a HQ come with him).

Gooddammit, I've said before I have an abusive relationship with Atlantis but this takes the cake. Bloody hell, such a good premise ruined by poor execution, AGAIN. As you can see I'm still pissed off, so I may have said something stupid. If I have please show me. I'm human too.

[GatetheWay]

Wow, what a rant. I'd say you take this TV show a little too seriously. Come on, when has a show ever gotten details like uniforms and guns right? It doesn't really matter to the plot and it would be nice if they could get it right but I'm not going to hate the show because of it.

And yes Everett was an idiot and was very inconsistent which I think this thread has already pointed out many times. He was supposed to be the gun-ho military guy that does stupid things to make the rest of the team look good.

I'm sure if you had been there the city would have been an impenetrable fortress but some how I doubt that. Anyway the SGC plan was to go on the offense and try and blow up the ships then wait for the Daedalus but, for plot reasons of course, it wasn't that easy. With the resources they had they tried to defend the city to the best of their ability.

Think of all this as dramatic license.

[Panther]

If your going to respond please refrain from argumentum ad hominem and say something worth saying.

[Futura]

I quite enjoyed this episode of Stargate Atlantis

[andrelage]

this is the best episode of the whole 1st season. i enjoyed all the action and what a cliffhanger.

[Ascended Times.2]

I like the action, but I must say, I agree with Panther on about 80% of those points, this is one of those sad episode I could close my eyes and poke blindly at with a stick and hit inconsistencies with

I'd give it a 7/10, 6 points for action.

[aaobuttons]

For all of you that don't look at the music vid page

Under Siege
Siege 2 episodic vid
Song: Harder to Breathe by Maroon 5
Right Click to Download or just click it to watch: http://www.streamload.com/hyperio1/@...neOutThere.wmv

[captain jake]

This episode was awesome I realy like the battle sequence it was awesome.

[Col Nate Bartlet]

i held back from watching the Siege, Parts I & II until i was able to get vol 1 of season 2 on dvd. having finally watched all 3 episodes in 1 go i have to say that this is one of the best episodes of the first season. From the Wraith Dart assault on Atlantis which reminded me of 1940s london under germany's blitz and the overwhelming feeling of hopelessness (sp?) that comes from the episodes.

lots of fun and lots of action, it would almost be a pure popcorn action movie.

[captain jake]

I totaly agree with you I never have eaten popcorn while watching it but I think I had bag of chips last time I saw it all together. haha

[Major Zoidberg]

I've watched them all like that, with a massive pile of comfort food

cheered me up better than happy pills